Off-highway braking systems often utilize a master cylinder to provide a hydraulic actuating mechanism. The master cylinder, when actuated, supplies high pressure fluid to a slave cylinder, which actuates the braking mechanism. Frequently, however, a master cylinder alone cannot meet the force and volume requirements of hydraulically actuated off-highway braking systems. Such systems require both a large volume of fluid as well as high pressure fluid in order to effectively actuate the brake and cause sufficient braking force. When a master cylinder is adapted to provide the necessary volume to actuate the brake, then the pressure of the fluid is decreased. Conversely, when the master cylinder is adapted to provide high-pressure fluid, then it is usually incapable of providing the high volume of fluid necessary to generate sufficient braking force.
One method used in the off-highway braking system industry to overcome the deficiencies of a master cylinder, as described above, is to add a power booster to the master cylinder. Hydraulic power boosters are well known in the art and are commercially available from several manufacturers, but they are also relatively expensive. An alternative solution involves replacing the master cylinder with a power brake valve that utilizes the high pressure hydraulic system of the vehicle on which the brake is installed. This solution is both expensive and complicated, and is therefore not ideal.
Thus, the need exists for a hydraulic pressure multiplier capable of both providing the volume of fluid required to actuate the brake while also providing the high pressure needed to generate the stopping forces required by off-highway vehicles.